ICARUS

We definitely have a myth to go with this minor
planet. Icarus was the son of Daedalus. When these two were imprisoned, the
father constructed wings and they both escaped. Icarus was intoxicated by the
glorious feeling of flight and kept rising higher and higher, in spite of his
father's repeated warnings. Finally Icarus flew too close to the Sun. The wax
holding the feathers on his wings melted, he fell into the sea and
drowned.

Surprisingly the observations about this minor planet fit quite well with
the myth. Where Icarus falls in your chart the typical tendency is to have a
low tolerance to restrictions. You want to escape any confining influences
here, or any responsibility that gets too heavy.

(That is, until you learn the lesson on how to handle such things better.)
Anyway, this hatred of restriction exits even if the restriction is necessary
or deserved. Once the escape is made, the average person tends to react just
like in the myth. He takes the line of least resistance, ignoring both his own
better judgment and the advice of others, and this sometimes results in a
major disaster.

Other Icarus lessons are: learning self-control once free of the
restriction, keeping your ears open to advice, especially to your inner voice,
and the dangers of letting a situation become totally out of control.

Icarus can produce positive results. When there is a time and a place for
taking risks and disregarding advice, people with strong Icarus aspects are
quite welcome. This is true, for example, during a war. Time and experiences
will usually produce the ability to discern when to let Icarus loose, and when
not to.

My father had a close Sun sextile Icarus. He was a career Marine and during
World War II he had a reputation for walking into danger. He took chances but
saved many lives, and appeared to have a charmed life. After retirement from
the military he did not change his attitude even though he was no longer in a
position where it had value (he got a civilian job as a bookkeeper). After a
series of heart attacks, and repeatedly disregarding advice from friends and
physicians, he finally succumbed to a fatal attack. But even at the end he
continued to live each day with no regard for the consequences.

When President Reagan was inaugurated on January 20, 1981,Icarus was
transiting over his natal Mercury. Thus this transit characterized his
thinking during his whole term of office. He was initially given a lot of
freedom to try out his ideas, and had supreme confidence in them. This led to
his disregarding the advice of others, and coming perilously close to
dangerous situations.

Interestingly, if you examine the transits of Icarus to a person's natal
chart during an attempt on their life (even if the attempt failed), you will
usually find a hard aspect to a natal position.

Don't overlook this body in synastry. For example, a woman had her Jupiter
closely conjunct her husband's second-house Icarus. Their marriage has been
typified by extreme financial ups-and-downs, and he has had numerous schemes
for financial gain which fell through, severely disrupting the family's funds.